Friday, January 29, 2010

The other day, we brought Ace to his favourite Ang Mo Kio Mac Donald.. where there is this helicoptor shaped playground...

There was a group of children playing there and they were all cousins and there was like this ring leader amongst them.. And Ace is very often attracted to big groups of children and kept sticking to them but they did not want to play with him..

Suddenly, Ace came out from the playground and cried loudly with alot of tears in his eyes... When I asked him what happened, Ace said, "He beat me..."

And he kept crying and crying.. I have never seen him cry so sadly at all.. so I was a little worried. I understand some children are rough and play rough... but so far, Ace has been able to take care of himself when he meets bullies...

And then I kept asking him where they beat him... Ace just cried and cried.. so I asked Ace if they slapped his face... and Ace said YES...

Wah, that got me very hot.. while it is my policy to not get involved in a child's fight because they can settle it themselves, I really buay tahan.. if they really slapped Ace, I will want to slap them back liao lor...

This is cos when I was very young, I was slapped by an older kid.. and I never forgot tat incident and how humiliated it made me feel.. tat is why I hate it when pple try to slap me.. even in jest... I still see tat older kid around and even though he is an adult now, I can still recognize him and I still will shoot dagger eyes at him....I regret not standing up for myself then..

So I told Ace, "The only way you can overcome this is to face it.. come, we go and you tell me who beat you..."

I walked into the playground with Ace and then there was a little girl who came out and told me.. "The boy is fighting, he is beating people inside...." so I knew I was dealing with someone slightly aggressive...

We stood there for a while and then the boy came out and so I asked him, "Did you beat him?" while pointing to Ace... If they did, I wanted them to apologize and shake hands...

"No, I didn't! He beat me first!" And his gang of cousins started saying tat Ace scolded them stupid and that Ace is naughty and they kept repeating, "We don't want to play with him!"

But they quickly hid inside the playground again... So I asked Ace again, "Did they beat you? Where did they beat you?"

And found out that they only beat Ace's hands. So tat cooled me down a little. I had to think fast.. While I know Ace is sometimes not consistent in his description of things that happened, I have never seen him scold someone stupid just because they dun want to play with him.. he usually just walks away.. so I figured what probably happened was that Ace wanted to play with them and they didn't want to play with him.. and he might have tried to force his way into the group and they just wanted to push him away and may have hit his hand as a result... No matter wat, I trust my own child first before I trust other pple...

And thinking back, I guess he was crying cos he was most upset by the fact that he was rejected and pushed out of a group..

So I asked Ace again when he cooled down.. "Ace, do you want to play with them?"

"Yes.." he said..

"If you want to play with them, then you have to stop crying.. if they do not want to play with you, just play with someone else, there is no need to cry..."

And he happily ran to play with tat same group of children. By this time, their parent came out and suddenly, they all behaved themselves and started to play with ace even though one minute ago, they were all pointing fingers at him...

But somehow, after a short while, they started to ask him to go away again.. maybe they changed the rules of the game or wat.. watever the case, we decided to go home cos I don't like those rowdy children.

Anyway, we never spoke about tat incident again.. but it made me think of what I said to Ace...

You see, I have a childhood friend who is very close to me.. for some unknown reason, she drifted apart and no matter how I tried to reach out to her via phone, sms, email, she just refuses to come and clear the air and be friends again... and i was very disturbed by it.. and everyone says the same thing to me.. "If people dun want to play with you, you just play with someone else..." But I just cannot help but feel upset..

Maybe this incident happened to remind me that I really should let go.. sometimes when pple ready, they will just come back...

PS: I noticed that Ace likes to play with pple who push him away. In dancing school, some naughty girls push him away (they are usually indian) but he will pick himself up and go and smile at them and play with them again.. saw this happen SOOOOOO many times in diff scenerios and situations.. wonder why my son SOOOOOOOO strange.. sometimes I really wonder why someone with a small heart like mine has such a big heart like him... hahahahaha.. when i was y0ung, I was super duper xiao qi lor!:P

Thursday, January 28, 2010

When we went to visit Siok Ling Ganma, she gave Ace a very nice christmas present.. it is a Monopoly Junior to help Ace learn how to count...

So the first night, Ace was really excited and the two of us started playing the game...

And it was really great cos it helped Ace learn to recognize numbers, learn to count and understand simple mathematical concepts.. and to my surprise, Ace won the game!:)

I tot the game would be a little bit more fun if more people played, so I kept asking Max to play with us and Max finally agreed.

Alas, the first few times we rolled the dice, Ace kept paying money and then he started to cross his arms.. suddenly, he ran into the room and kept quiet...

Initially, me and Max found it amusing and we were laughing about how this little boy is such a sore loser but after some time, we suddenly heard him crying out loud...

I went into his room and asked him what it is about and he cried with tears in his eyes and hugged me and t0ld me, "I want to win...."

I cannot help but laugh out loud when i heard tat... he is crying because he tot he was losing cos he was paying money all the time!

So I explained to him that we just started the game.. we dunno who is winning or losing until the end and reminded him that the day before, he was initially losing but he still won in the end. So he has to try to play before he knows if he wins or lose...

In the end, Max lost all his money first and Ace was glad tat he and me are winners.

I guess Ace is really growing up.. and he is starting to care about about of egoistical stuff like winning and losing and whether he is being liked.. (which I will tell you more in tomm's update....)

I guess now is the time where parental guidiance is really important...

Monday, January 25, 2010

Ace only has a few favourites when it comes to meals.. it is either Sushi, Sauce Mian or Chicken Rice.

Recently he become even more 'high class' and wants "nai nai's chicken rice'.

Initially I did not understand what he means.. and so i told him that I don't know how to cook Nai nai's chicken rice and spent alot of time trying to persuade him to eat something else..

Then one day, by pure chance, I found out that what he means by Nai Nai chicken rice is merely rice with something that looks like mock meat where the rice is put into a bowl and put upside down back into the plate so that it is round...

But leh, you cannot just give him the bowl shaped rice.. cos he will ask, "Where is my chicken?"

So it has to be with the vegeterian chicken of any sort.

Sometimes becos we are so bored with the few places that we visit for food, we go to those normal zichar stalls and ask them to fry vegeterian food for us. There was once we went there and since there was no veg chicken, we ordered fried rice and toufu.. and then we put toufu and mushrooms at the bottom of the bowl and top up the rice and turn it over...

And just to make it very attractive, we give it a interesting name and call it Treasure Rice.. because you can see the treasure hidden inside when you top it upside down..

Luckily, Ace is intrigued by the idea as he loves surprises... (during xmas, he asked me if I can buy a surprise present for him and wrap it when I am in school.. given a choice to choose something he wants and a surprise, he still chose a surprise) and so, we are able to get away with eating some other things using 'Treasure Rice'...

Saturday, January 23, 2010

The other day, Ace was trying to complete his kindergarten workbook to get his Ben 10T Shirt...

And then for one of the assignments, he was supposed to draw... and this is what he drew...

Can you tell what it is?:P

Well, they are really very cute little fishes... so cute right? No one taught him to draw them this way.. usually he imitates the things that I draw.. for example.. he likes to draw houses like the way I draw houses but this one, he totally invented himself...

And then after he was done drawing, he said he wanted to colour it.. and so he did...

And he is really creative lor. He even added this building inside... When I asked him what it was, he said that that is a Police Station.. that round thing in the middle is a button that will give out a siren and police will come and fetch the fish if they are naughty..

Friday, January 22, 2010

Dreams Inc and our commarades were dying for a gathering.. and we finally decided to meet up for steamboat...

Ace was really excited when he heard that we would be meeting Tiffany again.. and then he asked me if we were going to Tiffany's house. When he heard that we were meeting in a restaurant, he was so disappointed.

"Can we go Tiffany's house? I want to play with her toys..." Ace asked me..

But when he reached the restaurant, he was still happy lah.. cos children are the most wonderful and creative people in the whole wide world..

When they finished their meal and warmed up sufficiently, the two of them ran around the restaurant and opened many packets of the wet tissue to "CLEAN THE RESTAURANT".. gosh!

When can Ace sit down and eat a meal without running around?????

But thinking back, I can't say I blame him. I remembered that when I was young, my dad would bring us to dim sum every wkend and all I did was run up and down the isle the whole time too... Maybe this is what they call retribution.. HAHA :P

Ace, one day when you have kids, and they start running around the restaurant.. remember, this is merely KARMA.. hahahahhahahahha

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Okie, this is a super belated post cos I havent been very up to date about posting and lazy to download the pictures...

We basically had two main xmas celebrations this year..

One is at Melvin's house with Dragon, Kym and baby Kayla, Melvin, Germaine, Tiffany, Junie and of cos Max, Ace and yours truly...

Despite the fact that many of the regulars could not attend the gathering (Vincent, Amy, Jason were at work, Thomas and Sijia were with their new born, Karen and CK were in China), it was still a pretty fun evening and it was nice to gather and chit chat and laugh...

And when we reached, Tiffany was still taking her nap.. and then when she finally woke, Ace was excited and wanted to start playing.. but Tiffany was reluctant as she was still moody.. somehow though, Ace knew how to ask the right questions and warm her up and soon, they were already playing together happily:)

Initially they were playing with lego.. and suddenly, Tiff took out this PINK bag and it has got a doll inside and then they tried to feed the doll and play mummy and daddy. What happened next ws the most ridiculous.. my son started carrying that pink bag with the doll inside and walked all over the house for the next 15 min... finally we cannot take it anymore and asked him why is he carrying that pink bag and he just told us, "I am Daddy mah.. I carry my baby..."

Phew.. so tat was it..

Anyway, they were really excited and had lots of fun playing games like (you take photo of me, I take photo of you)... Tiff also taught Ace how to play games and see pics using her mummmy's iphone...

But the funniest part of the evening had to be this.. after Tiffany's cousin went home, Tiffany was moody for a while and did not want to play with Ace and came to sit with us at the dining area and so Ace just played by himself in the far end of the living room on the other side... Max wanted to make fun of Tiffany and asked her, "Tiffany, you got boyfriend or not?" And before anyone can say anything, from the far end of the living room, my very good son say, "Got! Me lor! Me and Tiffany got baby leh" and he pointed to the doll in the pink bag.. I laughed until PENGZ lor...

(A few days later, Ace said he likes Tanya and I asked him, "I tot you like Tiffany and is Tiff's boyfriend?" And he told me, "I only like to play with Tiffany.. but I want to wedding with Tanya..." FAINTZ)

Then the next day, we had a gathering at KP's place and because lele is still too young to play with Ace, Ace basically entertained himself with Joe's transformer set... hahaha... Max leh, on the other hand had a godo time pretending he had one more son:)

Anyway, in the end, we really had no time to surprise Ace and so we just brought him to shop and chose something for him... we let Ace take a finger print test and found out that he is really good at visual puzzles.. so we decided to buy him this puzzle thingy and Max and him have a good time playing.. he builds even nicer things than me or Max without the instruction booklet! So maybe he can become an architect in future..:)

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The other day, Popo won this thing which included 2 hours worth of play at Explore Kids.

The first time we let Ace go in by himself..but when he was coming down the slide, he hurt his lip and so when we told him we wanted to go again, he wanted me to go there together with him...

So, i had a chance to take pictures this time...

But perhaps it is because he had a bad experience at the slide, Ace did not seem to want to play inside the playground this time round and went to the toddler's corner.

And then a few people joined him and he got violent and tried to catch this boy whom he say is a thief because he says he is policeman.. so the boy got mad and tried to hit him with a cushion...Usually like Max, our policy is to try not to get involved in chidlren's quarrel and let them settle it by themselves. I still stood by one side and kept quiet to see what will happen next..

What happened next was they suddenly become friends and play together and started running all around the place.. Kids are the most amazing people on earth!:) And for the next 45 min, Ace just stuck on to this boy and they just run here and there all the time...

Anyway, instead of playing all the things there, they are just running around there.. i felt like it was a waste of our time because he was just running around all the time...

He never asked to go again so I guess it is not really a favourite place with him.. I heard from Tiffany's mum that Tiff likes to go there and we made a date to go there together with the kids.. so maybe if he has one more friend to play with there, he would want to climb up and down in the playground instead of just running around...

Monday, January 18, 2010

The other day, our Lions Club PDG, Isabel and her hubby very kindly invited us to her house for a xmas gathering...

Just to save time, we also decided to hold our monthly meeting and our induction during this gathering... It was a particularly happy day cos ganma and gandie were both inducted as our new club members too...

So, Ace was pretty much by himself throughout.. and thanks to the fact that some of our members brought their wives and children along, Ace had some good company and had some people taking care of him while me and Max were busy.

When I came out from my meeting, I realized that Ace was happily eating away. My friend's wife told me, "Ace is eating plaster now.. he saw my son eating and asked me what it was.. and then he went to order by himself..." Ace apparently remembered that he is vegeterian and asked whether there is meat.. when told that there is egg inside, he told my fren that Mummy says he can eat egg. And so he went ahead and ordered it.

You see, Isabel had very kindly invited a famous roti prata stall to set up a booth at her house where they served some curry and free flow of pratas and drinks...

When I told him that he is very clever to order this by himself, he very excitedly told me, "Mummy, this one no need money one leh!" Hahaha.. my son is a cheapo like me and likes free things...

Then when I went for my second meeting, I saw him walking in and out and when the jie jies tell him not to go out, he just dun listen and run out anyway... Suddenly, I see a cup of rootbeer in his hands and when we tried to ask him not to drink it, he just wriggle away and did whatever he liked.

So when I finally finished my meeting, I went to the prata stall and told the guy that if he sees my son.. who is the little boy in white and orange stripes trying to order rootbeer or any cold drinks, then just don't give it to him and tell him his mummy say cannot..

Hai.. when I see really well behaved children who sit down and dun run around and who shake hands and say goodbyes and thank yous.. I wish Ace is like them too.. I wonder if it is really because of Ace's age or that I am a lousy mummy and never teach him his manners properly...

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Some time back, Ace asked me where babies came from and it so happened that on the same day we had that conversation, we went to the library to borrow books and I discovered this book called Changing You.

I told Ace this is a book that will give him the answers about the questions he asked me and he said that he wanted to borrow it.

And since that day onwards, he has been asking me to read the same book for him EVERYDAY!

Initially I was quite happy lah.. cos the book teaches some very good things and it talks about:

What is a penis

What is a scrotum

What happens to your body when you grow up if you are a boy or a girl

What is an errection and why it happens

What is sexual intercourse

The developmental stages of fetus in mummy's body

How is the fetus born and why it drinks milk from mummy's breast

Why you cannot let other people touch your body

How you should react if other people want to touch your body

What you can do if you have 'sexy thoughts'

But of course, when I read, I dun read everything. Because Ace is only 4, I skip some of the more graphic parts but I must say Ace has learnt alot. Like he knows that in the morning when his penis is errected, that is called an errection and it happens cos blood flows there...

Most importantly, he understands that when people want to touch him, he should say NO and tell a parent. The book also teaches them that they can only touch another person's body if they and that person are in love and they have their permission to do so and that they should only have sex if they are ready for it and ready to have a baby...

Anyway, as you can tell, it is a book with alot of info so it takes alot of effort to read to him.. even if i skip certain parts..

So after reading it almost everyday for two weeks, I finally buay tahan and asked him.. "Ace, why must you ask me to read this book everyday??"

"Because, Mummy, I want to know what will happen when I grow up... When I grow up, I want to get married and have babies.. so I must read the book..."

Friday, January 15, 2010

We were invited to Conrad and Fanny's wedding the other day.. but I guess it would be more accurate to say tat Ace was invited to Conrad and Fanny's wedding (Fanny is a huge fan of Ace and Denzel) and we were invited along with Ace...:P

Anyway, Ace was really excited about it as he really loves weddings.

The other day, when i picked him up from my mum's place, he was sitting there, right in front of the TV watching Dang Wo Men Tong Zai Yi Qi.. my mum says he was initially playing happily by himself and all of a sudden when it seems like there was a wedding going on, he was totally fixated on the tv...

He didn't want to go home and insisted on staying to finish watching the wedding. Luckily there was an advertisement and so I told him we go home and watch.. and he kept hurrying me, hurrying his dad.. even when we stopped at the traffic lights, he asked his dad, "Daddy, can you go quickly?"

Alas, when we reached home, also there was no wedding cos the story was about how the father died cos his son could not invite him to his wedding...

Anyway, on the way to Fanny's wedding, he kept asking me whether he will need to jump on the bed (cos he was bed jumper for Ah Yee and Justin's wedding) and we told him no.

When we reached there and he saw Denzel, he was totally excited and the two of them really got into much mischief.. these two misfits plucked out the rose petals and threw them on the floor and danced around.. staining the carpets with the red rose petal colour... haiyo....

And we again met GR there and we asked Ace if he know who GR is, and he said, "The funny gor gor..." Hahahaha...

Anyway, when the wedding ended, Ace asked me, "Mummy, are we going into the room and ask them to take off their clothes?"

He remembered the last time at Justin and Ying Ying's wedding where we nao dong fang... oops...